


I really hope it was (just a thing of the past)

by JustabookjunkieIneednohelp



Category: The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angry Alec Lightwood, Angry Jace Wayland, Drinking, Enemies to Friends, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Magnus Bane Being Magnus Bane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:00:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23815774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustabookjunkieIneednohelp/pseuds/JustabookjunkieIneednohelp
Summary: Jace has hated Magnus since the day he decided to come back into Alec's life. As time goes on it's clear that Magnus is no player, no asshole.But knowing and accepting are different things.Freshly broken up with by Clary and scammed to spend a week in a dingy cottage --"She said it was 37.8 acres!""Jace," Magnus had answered witheringly, "She was including the fields."-- in the middle of nowhere with Alec and Magnus, Jace's rage has slipped its leash.Can Jace curb his anger? Or will Alec be forced to choose sides?
Relationships: Magnus Bane & Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	I really hope it was (just a thing of the past)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kbl55429](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbl55429/gifts).



> This is a thank you fic for kbl55429 (yes I believe that is their real name -- crazy, I know) for sticking with my other Malec fic, one I updated the last chapter to a year late. Thanks man.
> 
> I did take some artistic liberties on the prompt they gave, but it has the skeleton.
> 
> It is a one shot you can enjoy regardless of reading the series: I really hope it wasn't (just an experiment). Hope you all have fun reading this.
> 
> Criticisms appreciated.

"I'm bored." 

Alec raised an eyebrow in response. This trip had been Jace's idea after all. An apology, he had said.  _ Though really you left me in the dumpster, so, who should be apologising, huh Alec?  _ Regardless it was obvious what the ruse was concealing. 

Late summer air was tinged with the mellifluous scent of leaf mulch, the sharp sting of fresh grass and the vaguely musky smell that was farm. As they were indeed on a farm. The they consisting of Magnus and Alec and Jace, a predicament no party involved had forseen. Izzy had cancelled on this last minute trip, well… last minute. It was all very rambunctious. Jace had swiftly been broken up with by a certain redhead, a farmhouse had been swiftly acquired from a certain Ms Lafargue (she two had been a redhead, but time being the envious wretch it was had stolen the tint. So now Ms Lafargue wore it a different hue each week, and because it was her blood that had lit the scarlet strands so incandescent, each colour she wore was equally magnificent. Understandably, time was seething. When Jace had gone to close the deal, she had been phosphorous azure, a spring sky around her light brown skin), text invitations had been swiftly sent, call acceptances had been swiftly returned, luggage had been swiftly zipped for a week long trip, a certain sister had swiftly renounced her affirmation to attended. And at that point the trio had swiftly arrived at the rusty orange door of the dilapidated cottage/farmhouse, so it had been too late. 

The building was small: a cramped bedroom cupped two single beds in it's cracked palms, a hunched living room ducked it's tacky chandelier head over one IKEA table (not assembled) and one tiger skin rug (not real), the kitchen held its breath as a pantry sidled close.  _ She said it was 37.8 acres!  _ The freshly broken hearted boy had exclaimed in betrayal. _ Jace,  _ Magnus had answered witheringly _ , She was including the fields. _

Though the infrastructure was surely larger than a flat, walls that sprung up at inopportune places and ugly fixtures that jutted out of more inopportune places gave the place an overall suffocating affect. It made Alec's apartment look spacious. Worse than the design of the place were the colours.

Jace had met Ms. Lafargue, divorced and widowed -- twice each -- Men had always had bad luck with her. She on the other hand got bored fast, so it never bothered her too much when accidents did befall her spouses and lovers. In this rural spit outside the town, rumours claimed she killed them herself and kept stunning through dark arts that involved their bodies, or their inheritance money, depending on who told the story. They were false, of course, Ms. Lafargue was not a fan of chipped nails or messy things like confrontation -- and she had been gorgeous, devastating, even at 73. Her skin delicately wrinkled as she squinted against the sun, her hair bright-blue, a sleek sheet that swished hypnotically as she strode down the gravelled path. It whispered against her bony ankles as she pointed at the distant house Jace was to rent. Lively black eyes slid to Jace as he scratched at his checkbook. 

It was as if the design of the house, colours: glaring and ugly, were the counterbalance to her immense beauty. From the rusty orange door to the lime green outside walls, to the paisley lavender, acid yellow, watery pink and rotting brown wallpaper, ending at the candy tangerine and black of the faux tiger carpet. All an assault to the eyes. Seeking refuge, the trio had trekked to one of the vast fields surrounding the hunched building, with the aim of returning once night rendered it a safer place.

"I'm bored." Jace repeated, irritably swatting a mayfly that buzzed at his eye. It mistook the bright hues of Jace's eyes for flowers, ir fruits.

Alec was laying in the downy grass, trying to quieten the stuttering part of his thoughts that calculated the sifting hours as lost wages. World crimson against his eyelids, Magnus' sketching charcoals a bird's song against his ears. 

"Jace." Magnus' voice sliced the air, it held a warning tone Alec had not heard before. This was because Magnus was no longer in possession of his sketchbook. Alec to deep in his thoughts to notice the warning silence of birds. Magnus held a splintered charcoal crayon between his fingers. Coal dusted his fingers, a line smeared across his cheek. Face stony, his eyes tracked Jace's hands. Hands that flipped pages with undue forced, Alec caught skeleton clothes, animal-headed humanoid dancers and his own eyes pressed between the cream sheets. 

"Jace." Alec repeated, a tad softer, more questioning.

"What? Come on Alec. I'm bored I said, bored bored bored. Also, these are just doodles."

Jace cut a shadowed figure against the rays of the showering sun. Each gesture was large, jagged. He smiled widely at Magnus, laughing as a tear split the page. Magnus flinched. 

"Oops," and then "Woah--woah man."

Magnus had sprung from ground, he snatched at the book as Jace capered back. His loose, billowing white blouse filling with wind, onyx hair snapping. "Jace." Alec warned.

But Jace had drank the concoction that was the bitterness and anger of being hurt, and in the way of such things, his earlier ugly emotions regarding Magnus swam up until he was just bitter and angry and hurting, not because of Clary but because of Magnus. Jace did not heed Alec's warning and he didn't heed the stone splayed behind him.

As he tumbled with a short cry, the sketchbook sprung aloft in momentary flight, the sun's ray cupped the off-white wings of the paper bird, a page hung crookedly out of the maroon binding. Broken bones; Ruptured feathers remarked the forecast. Alec could only watch as Jace's face snarled with a burst of fury, as his hand yanked Magnus down, as the book splattered with a muffled splash in a wayward muddied puddle. Magnus' soft gasp broke the strangely silent scene, an elbow rammed his ribs, the elbow belonged to Jace as he struggled to push himself up, and Magnus off.

Alec had never been an angry person, anger was a useless emotion he thought. It misted logic and fogged up common sense. People, Alec concluded, did terrible things when blinded by anger. Yet, as he caught Magnus' eyes land on his drenched sketchbook, caught the softly disappointed slump of Magnus' shoulders, caught Magnus' lids close-pause-open, Alec was engulfed with it. 

"Jace." He gritted out, Alec did not shout, because Alec never shouted. He didn't need to, Jace's own wrath stumbled as he looked up at Alec's simmering face. 

"A word." He snapped, finger flung towards a spot a few feet away. 

Watching only long enough to ensure Jace had nothing say, Alec strode to Magnus, who held his sketchbook with both hands. A brown sludge dripped viscous rain between his bronzed fingers, a frown sat on his lips. A beat sauntered by, two; Alec extended a hand to catch the drizzle. He rubbed the gritty liquid between his thumb and finger. He said nothing. Rage was too strong a song in his veins and he didn't have any spare lyrics.

Magnus sighed, lifting a palm off the crinkled remains of work as if to run it through his hair, before recalling the state they were in. It hovered in front of him, a mud slicked portrait, his grass scuffed, dirt mucked shirt the landscape behind. Magnus smiled an unfunny smile before lightly shaking his hand to dislodge the larger remnants of muck. A futile gesture, as the sketchbook was once again held -- gently -- between hands.

"Well darling, I'm going to go see if I can salvage this." Magnus declared, a sniping glance shot at Jace. "Catch up?" Not allowing Alec a chance to answer, he left with a flourish. 

The whispering scrape of Magnus' lips on his cheek only served as spark to Alec's rage. Heaving a breath, he made his way to Jace who had the good grace to look uncertain. Overhead fluffy white clouds scampered away, the crystal blue sky staying to glare at Jace. Grass murmured excitedly under Alec's bare feet, eager for blood. Wildflowers and weeds leaned in. 

"You--" Alec hissed. For a moment words were led astray in the fog. Alec simply hissed again, "You--"

The blonde haired boy held in a wince, as Alec's furious face leaned closer. Still no words had made it to his tongue. The result was two uncomfortably close boys, one seething forward, one teetering back. Alec's eyes razed Jace's sheepish face, a panic lit his eyes and suddenly Alec was overcome with the urge to break something. Closing his eyes, he backed up a step, pressing the heels of his hands to closed lids. Crimson, tangerine and inky blue blossoms burst in the dark.  _ There's a name for them,  _ Alec thought.  _ What was it? _

He said: "Jace." 

He said: "Fix it." 

Alec lowered his hands, shoving fists into his pockets. "I mean it. I'm not taking anymore of this shit. Don't-- Just. Don't."

Alec didn't specify was Jace was not supposed to do, but Jace had a vaguely specific idea. The rest was left unsaid, because Alec wasn't one for swearing, or harsh words, but Jace heard it nonetheless: Oh, for godsakes. And: Goddamnit you bastard. And: Jace you colossal imbecile.

Jace swallowed, arms folding as he nodded his consent.  _ Fix it, _ he thought.  _ I can do that. _ His anger was a long lost melody, and he didn't remember why it had fielt so vital to sear Magnus with it.

\--------------------------------------

Magnus was quite outdone. It wasn't only that Jace's confined childish assaults were grating, but that it greatly troubled Alexander. The latter sentiment an elephant in the room the shape of his absence and a text: 

**Gone to get supplies. Will be back in an hour. The store is an hour away. Damn Jace.**

A bewildered Jace slumped across from Magnus under a rather ugly print of a lady turning into a jaguar or vice versa. It should have looked whimsical and savage, but the paisley dread had leeched the passion and proportion from the painting so now it was only bulbous head and popping eyes and greasy muscles. Magnus shuddered. Dear god, what a perversion.

Hair buzzed at the bottom, lit by the dim, bad-bleach-orange chandelier, golden hair flopping at the top, slipping into his mismatched eyes. Hollows pressed beneath, lips pursed, Jace was all elbows and knees on the fraying grey carpet (it was impossible to tell if it had arrived at the colour or arrived as the colour). He was not a person made for shabby houses. Dark expensive jeans sat low on hips, a plain dark blue T-shirt clung to muscles. Magnus couldn't reconcile this boy with the lost orphan of Alec's past. Jace was not made for anything but cocky grandeur and smooth skating. It made Magnus' perspective of him shift, ever so slightly, past actions made more sense. His unconsolable rage at Magnus, his over protectiveness of Alec, his unending hatred for Marys and Robert. Did Jace hate him too? The thought was an unpleasant one. 

Magnus cleared his throat, Jace's knuckles tightened around his knees. The second reason they both sat in close quarters of another: Alec had taken the spare key with him. They were trapped in the cluttered bird cage of a house and the only other place to wait was the bedroom, a space so crumpled, it introduced itself as claustrophobia to even the most hardy of people. 

"I brought whisky." Magnus drawled, eyes flicking to the ceiling. The chandelier ostentatiously peered back at him, a brow raised. In his peripheral, Jace shifted, head tipping to stare at the tacky light fixtures. Jace swallowed, he swallowed again.

"Yeah…" a cough, "Yeah man. Sounds good."

Magnus held in a sigh; this was painstaking. Awful. 

"I'll get it then."

Standing, a foot caught the frayed carpet, so the process was less sauve than he wanted. Snatching a look over, he expected Jace to be smirking at his blunder, but his gaze was captive to the chandelier. Magnus shrugged. Some echo of anger slithered in him at his ruined work, Alec's weary look as he left flashed up right after. Magnus got the whisky. 

Whisky entailed four amber sloshed bottles and one of spit transparent liquid. Jace couldn't help but be delighted by this obvious transgression of appropriate alcohol consumption. He laughed.

"Nice.' 

Magnus hesitated a second, then sat across from Jace. The indecision made guilt curl in Jace's stomach.  _ Fix it.  _ Jace opened his mouth.  _ Fix it.  _ "You good with opening that?" _Damn it._

Magnus shot him a bemused look, "Yes, Mr. Macho Dude. I do work out you know." A thoughtful pause, a tilt of his head, a devilish grin: "Ask Alec. He'll confirm."

Jace's over zealous retching mingled with Magnus' cackling. An owl paused its flying, ants halted their scuttling at the bouyant sound. Jace felt a little looser. Tugging the bottle Magnus offered, Jace took a hearty gulp, full of jovial aplomb. The two sat in companionable silence as the night aged, the only sound was the chirping cicadas, buzzing insects.

"Magnus," Jace's words splintered the quiet.

Cupping the whisky, he reached up to scratch behind an ear. Shifty eyes skipped over Magnus, the latter adorned in an oversized gray sweater Jace was afraid belonged to Alec. The worn material was stretched over Magnus' bare legs, so it looked like he wore a dress. Magnus looked entirely too pleased with himself and all too comfy.

"So… What I want to say is-- uh-- Look man. I've been a jackass to you. I get that. Today with your--" he waved the bottle in explanation "-- drawings, I didn't mean to rip them and shit. Even before, well not before before, cuz I didn't know if you were an asshole, but after you and Alec got together. I've been an asshole. So what I'm trying to say is, I crossed a line today. Maybe before today. Probably before. What I mean is I'm sorry… and shit."

Magnus waited until Jace had chugged down the alcohol he began downing after this speech, as if admitting wrongdoing scraped his throat raw and disinfection was needed; an imminent protocol. Jace was not a person who apologised.

"You have." Magnus gave a nod in agreement.. "Been as asshole, and jackass and shit."

The skin around Jace's eyes tightened, his palm falling to cradle the bottle in his between both hands, unconsciously mimicking Magnus' earlier gesture.

"And, I concur that today's behaviour was unacceptable -- Break up or no."

"I--"

Magnus' own bottle raised in placation, in slow down, in I haven't finished Jace. It was a casual gesture, a friend raising cheers, though received from the cool eyed, crossed legged boy, it was a firm thing. His gaze softened at the clinched lips on Jace's mouth, Jace felt relief simmer in his gut, though he hesitated to accept it as being related to Magnus. Knowing for a long while, the rage directed at Magnus was losing force and volume, more importantly it was losing reason was not the same as accepting it. Magnus was not the heartbreaker, the asshole player Jace had dubbed him to be. He was in fact, quite the opposite. Jace was well aware the labels had slid to his side of the podium recently, still, bad habits like cigarette smoke were hard to give up.

"I'm not unreasonable Jace, I don't want to hold a grudge. Not just for Alec's sake but ours. Despite all reason, I actually like you. So yes. I accept." 

Magnus raised an expectant eyebrow, "As long as the pettiness is invited for no more encores."

A loose grin shattered Jace's face, "Yeah bro. For sure. Yeah."

Whisky clinked, eyes glittered: monochrome and inky black, both boys shared untethered grins. Silence was a pleasant creature that lounged comfortably between the the two for several long moments, a slight smile lingered on Jace's face as he sipped his alcohol.

"Jace," Magnus murmured, an edge creeping into his voice. The blonde haired boy straightened from where he had let his head slump on the wall, eyes sharpening. 

"Never call me bro again."

If the family of crows huddled on the beech trees outside the window had not been used to Ms. Larfargue's barked singing, they would have burst apart at the volume of Jace's laugh. However, these were hardened creatures and so they only whispered their wings with the annoyance of being disturbed as Jace's laugh clambered the dilapidated walls of the house and leaped into the night. Wheeling and spinning and crashing amongst feathers and wind and grass.

"Okay bro." Jace sputtered back and Magnus was unreasonably pleased. He flashed Jace a smile before proclaiming he could sit inside no more.

"But the…"

Jace petered off as he saw the rusted, archaic key between Magnus' fingers, the rougish quirk to his mouth. A soft, admiring whistle stole through the air. Striding towards the door, Magnus answered.

"We wouldn't have had an excuse to stay in one place. Besides," He paused, flicking a smile over his shoulder as the key snicked open the lock, "all good bonding sessions start with a disaster."

Jace only shook his head in response, stumbling through the door in a dramatic fashion befitting the situation. Amber liquid sloshed on the grass, the soil greedily sucking it up (The ground was what humans called A Regular Alcoholic --- Ms. Lafargue wasn't one to shy from life's copious and inebriating pleasures -- but since humans only knew of it in passing, the ground was what humans called The Ground.) Jace threw a head back, collapsing to his knees. The loud thwack of bone against The Ground broke the charade momentarily, luckily Jace had been an actor long before he had been drunk, so the pain briefly fluttered across his face, before he took a dramatic swig of whisky. Clasping a hand to chest and looking convincingly forlorn and longing at the stars:

"My bro! So long I have been kept from you. Oh, where was art thou--thee? No-- thou. Where was art thou my bro?"

Magnus sufficiently amused, purred a villainous laugh, sloping after Jace. "T'was I that felled thy love. I, prince of night, emperor of darkness, I-- Oh hello Alexander."

A sufficiently bewildered Alec stood, hands slack at the edge of the yard's boundary -- though one could argue the fields surrounding the house were also the yard thus the yard's boundary. His expression was caught between confusion and exasperation, any thing seemed possible and nothing did. A plastic bag crinkled between his fingers. What was going on? In the way of those tipsy Jace and Magnus found this combobulation hilarious. Jace falling into a ball of what he might call  _ Enjoyment Alec!  _ but was really to be categorized as Insanity. Magnus leaping forward to smirk and stutter into random fits of laughter, as he grabbed at Alec's neck and slammed his mouth to Alec's. 

An exasperated Alec peeled off and dragged the two into the house. Dreading the tag team he had unleashed upon the world, he shut the door behind. Try as he might however, he couldn't trap the smile that sprung on his lips: relieved with a dash of excitement. Finally, he thought. Finally.

When Jace offered him a drink Alec did not refuse. 

\--------------------------------------------

"It's not so bad." Jace whispered into the dark.

Magnus had fallen asleep on the single bed, tangled with Alec: head atop chest atop stomach atop crotch atop legs. It was not a position befitting of sleep, Alec knew he would find no fish in that particular pond tonight. Yet he couldn't say he minded. Running a free hand through Magnus' silky hair, Alec wrinkled his nose as strands tickled his chin. His elbow had taken a vacation under Magnus, not content to merely sleep. Alec vaguely mused if he would still be in possession of a right arm tomorrow. Easy trade off. Though working at Luke's would take some getting used to. Nothing he couldn't fix however. People learned to thrive with fewer limbs.

"Thank you." Alec answered instead.

Jace's breathing which had been a benevolently blundering thing turned silent. "I like him." He simply answered back.

Alec smiled, and the night was so impressed with the radiance it emitted that even though Jace could not have known of its existence, he smiled in response. 

"I'm sorry for being a dick."

Closing his eyes, Alec wondered at how dark it was, at what the word for the static-colour behind your eyes was, at how Magnus' joy looked when hung next to Jace's, at how desperately he wanted Izzy to have been with them tonight. Mostly he wondered if he would ever stop being surprised, of himself, of other people, of Jace. Getting kicked out did not seem a terrible thing when it meant he had found a best friend, a family, because of it. Really these sentiments should not be hoarded and Alec was one of the few people who understood this wisdom. He relayed the thoughts to Jace. Jace became suspiciously silent.

"I'm glad you're sorry. I am too, for getting angry today."

"I deserved it." Shrugged Jace. Alec did not see this, but the gesture was present in the flippant flick of Jace's voice. "Phosphenes by the way."

A surprised laugh tumbled from Alec's mouth, a hushed, delighted sound. 

"You don't have dibs on knowledge Alec." Jace sounded offended. He wasn't.

Outside a wicked moon curled in a midnight sky, leaves sung unknowable songs and insects chattered with the piercing stars. They were miles away from city noise, a stillness crept into Alec. He wanted a house away from the city one day, some place as silently loud as this, though decidedly less cramped and ugly. One day, Alec promised himself. 

"Alec…" 

Dreams of paint tubes and textbooks stacked under plum trees dispelled at the sound of Jace's voice; a lingering feather stamped itself onto his heart. Some day.

"I'm bored."

Alec raised an eyebrow in response. Stealthily and deftly flinging a pillow in his friend's general direction. A soft oomf and muffled snickers were his only response. 

Eventually, Alec slept.


End file.
